Story by Jeff Gard/ Total Sports Media
Belleville’s Sarah Condon has qualified for next year’s World Masters Weightlifting Championships.
Condon met the qualifying standard while recently competing in the Canadian Masters Weightlifting Championship, which was a virtual event this year. She considered it a special and unique event that showcased the competitors overcoming obstacles from the past year, which required a lot of training from home.
Qualifying for the World event is based on age division, weight class and meeting or exceeding the qualifying standard in terms of kilograms lifted.
Condon, who competes in the 35-39 age division and 59 kg weight class, placed second in her group and exceeded the qualifying standard at the Canadian championships by lifting 54 kg (119 pounds) for snatch and 65 kg (143 pounds) for clean and jerk for a total of 119 kg.
“It was one of those things for myself, it’s always been on the list of things you would like to achieve and when I was doing my lifts everything was really coming together,” Condon said.
The 2022 World Masters championship will be held next year in December in Orlando, Florida.
“I think everybody’s keeping their fingers crossed that things are moving in the right direction, so lots of time between now and then to continue to train, continue to keep getting better and most of all having fun,” Condon said.
Condon loves to keep pushing herself and is proud of qualifying for the World championships.
“As we get a little bit older it certainly becomes, I don’t want to say more challenging, but you’ve got work and everything else,” she remarked. “It’s one of those things that’s pretty exciting to do amongst everything else. For myself, just to be able to qualify is a huge accomplishment and something that I’m pretty excited about.”
Condon trains at Victory Barbell Club, located just over the Norris Whitney Bridge heading from Belleville to Prince Edward County. .
“It’s a small gym, small team, but I personally really like that,” she said. “It really gives us a closeness, kind of like a little family there.”